SEPTEMBER 2019 15WHILE IN THE NAVY in
San Diego, California, I ordered
my very first new car, a Brewster
Green 1973 Firebird Formula 400
from Gifford Pontiac. It was the
first time I was able to order a new
car, and it was a blast to drive.
Moving the clock ahead 40-
plus years, I found myself in
Kentucky helping some friends
restore Corvettes. Having never
forgotten about that Firebird, I
Wayne Hameloth 1974 Trans Am
had a dream of finding a 1970s
Firebird Trans Am and restoring
it. With a one-car garage and no
lift, I was limited to starting with
a fairly complete car.
I found a 1974 Trans Am that
had a numbers-matching 455
and a TH400 transmission
after two years of searching. A
body-off restoration had been
started in 1997 by the previous
owner. All of the bodywork hadbeen completed, including be-
ing painted in its original color,
Cameo White. A new Baer four-
wheel disc-brake system, a full
Hotchkis suspension system,
a rebuilt steering system, and
a new TA rearend had all been
installed on the car. Some of the
interior had been refurbished,
and the 455 motor and transmis-
sion had been installed. The car
had been lowered 2 inches, and
everything had been removed
from the firewall, including the
heater, ventilation, and A/C sys-
tems. I think his intention was to
build a track car.
In 2000, the motor and trans-
mission were sent to Jim Taylor
Engines for a rebuild. The motor
was upgraded with HO/SD parts,
including round-port 7F6 heads,
a Holley aluminum intake and
800-cfm carburetor, roller rock-
ers, a custom cam, and other
high-performance parts. Over
the next 16 years, the owner
accumulated parts for the car
assuming they were correct and
supposed to work on a 1970 to
1975 Firebird. They were never
installed on the car.
When I purchased the car
in 2016, it had been in storage
for 16 years, had not run since
2000, and had not been driven
since the 1990s. It came with a
truckload of boxes filled with
brand new parts. As I started
assembling the car, I came tothe conclusion that even though
I had all these new parts, most
of them were not going to work
on this car. My goal was to keep
the car as cosmetically OE as
possible. I contacted my friend
Shawn Green at Firebird Central
in Richmond, Kentucky, to see if
he would be interested in swap-
ping some parts. He agreed, so
we traded what ended up being
a pickup load of Firebird parts.
Now, after working on the
car for more than two years, it is
finally together and somewhat
drivable. The black deluxe inte-
rior looks original with an AM/
FM Delco radio and an eight-
track system. I replaced the
1974 front end with one from a
1972 model, replaced the Holley
intake and carburetor with a
Ram Air IV aluminum intake and
Quadrajet carburetor, installed
a functional 1972 hoodscoop
and air cleaner, installed Ram Air
round-port exhaust manifolds,
and a stock SD exhaust and muf-
fler system. Some of the parts
that came with the car were OE,
and I supplemented those with
as many OE parts that I could
find and refurbish. The rest were
reproductions.
The drivability aspect needs
some improvement, so as I work
on that my plan is to drive it to
local car shows and maybe even
drive it to Dayton, Ohio, to the
Trans Am Nationals.